Absafe Case Studies

Some of our smarter, safer solutions in action.

Aurora Apartments

High-rise, low risk

After 10 years, this 20 storey luxury apartment tower was showing the first signs of degradation. We conducted a comprehensive facade inspection and tabulated our findings to the building plans, which allowed the owners to prioritise their maintenance budget and address issues before they became major problems.
Bells Portal - Thomson dam

Keep the solutions flowing

At the main outlet for the Thomson Dam, major builders John Holland needed to install deep draw pumps to continue supplying Melbourne with water - but were hamstrung by OH&S problems with the existing cranes. Built during the early 80's, they had no edge protection to keep maintenance personnel safe from a 6-metre drop. We designed, engineered and installed steel support structures for the horizontal static lines and added static ladder lines and multiple-fall-arrest anchor bolts to the cranes, allowing this essential work to continue safely and to schedule.
Queen Victoria Market

Preserve her and keep her

The Melbourne icon presented a classic heritage challenge; provide safe roof access for maintenance without destroying the visual aspect. Our solution was Saferidge, a custom ridge replacement product that uses a sliding trolley as an anchor point. The finished product is difficult to distinguish from the original and offers safe and easy access to the 150 year-old roof.
Yallourn Power Station

Tall orders a speciality

To ensure it is safe and functional until retirement, this ageing but essential power plant runs a rigorous maintenance program. Absafe have been part of that program for the past 4 years.

Internal Chimney Inspections

During the first 2008 shutdown of this facility, we conducted a full inspection of the chimney's internal refractory brick lining to ensure its integrity. The dark environment, the 180 metre drop, and the need for a live video feed to allow engineers to investigate specific areas of concern all placed unusual demands on our skills. Our solution was to create a customised light box with internal battery power for at least 30 minutes that illuminated the opposite side of the chimney 10 metres away.

External Chimney Works

We built on our experience with high exposure tackling to perform major maintenance work on the chimney's exterior, including applying protective mesh overlays, designing and upgrading gantries, installing access systems, retrieving concrete core samples, and performing concrete repairs and reinforcement repairs.

Shutdown inspection and testing

During the chimney shutdown, we used industrial abseiling techniques to conduct inspections of the internal and external flues and perform specialised lightning rod, conductivity and steel thickness tests. We also retrieved concrete core samples for laboratory analysis.
SP AusNet

Protecting your power base

To maintain safe power distribution along critical supply lines, we performed high-risk corrosion treatment to over 200 high voltage transmission line towers. The work involved excavating and abrasive blasting each tower and applying a heavy duty 2-pack coating down to their footings, requiring high levels of mobility, specialised spray equipment, and stringent quality controls. It was completed on time and over the extreme heat of the '08-09 summer.
Hazelwood Power Station Chimney

Weathering the elements

When Hazelwood's 140 metre unit 1 chimney was shut down for 20 days in 2010, Absafe conducted 36 core samples, completed full crack mapping and inspection of requested areas, installed 100 square metres of rock fall protection meshing and performed 2 cubic metres of concrete repair. The work was done quickly and in adverse weather conditions with the help of mobile powered rope winch ascenders which can lift a person at 22 metres per minute and also assist with manoeuvring loads into position.
Cement Australia

Cementing a relationship

We were the first company to use rope access techniques at the Cement Australia plant in Railton Tasmania, and the first to carry out thickness testing and clean build-up on the plant's internal silos.

The success of this work has seen us return many times to carry out inspections, ongoing remedial work and emergency clearance work.